FROSTBURG — The Frostburg mayor and City Council voted recently to implement two-hour free parking throughout the downtown business district.
In addition to the free parking, there will be several free 20-minute limit parking spaces to accommodate short-term parking for regular pick ups and drop-offs, according to city officials.
New signage will be installed in the downtown to note the free parking in the coming days. City officials said meters have already been covered with stickers that indicate the free parking.
“The idea of the two-hour free parking scenario is to encourage shoppers to use those spaces for commerce, while discouraging people from using spaces all day,” said Mayor Bob Flanigan. “Long-term parking for downtown employees should be in surface lots, not along the streets.”
Flanigan said the city researched how other small towns in the region handle parking and concluded free parking was the best option.
“We want to be more business conscious,” said Flanigan. “We will do some enforcement. We do have the two-hour rule and we have cameras up on Main Street. If people take too much advantage of it and we see a problem with violations we will take another look at it.”
The mayor and Council considered several alternative options for downtown parking, such as purchasing new parking meters or switching to a kiosk-based system. City leaders noted that existing parking meters are approximately 25 years old and are in various states of disrepair.
However, they said a new metering system would result in a significant cost to the city.
The parking meter posts and heads will remain intact in order to accommodate the popular Deck the Meters competition during the holiday season.
Several enforcement methods will be utilized under the new system, according to officials. Officers of the Frostburg Police Department will make periodic checks of the parking area and handle complaints about parking.
The city will temporarily issue warnings as the adjustment is made to free, non-metered, parking. In the future, violations may result in a parking citation with a payable fine of $30 per violation.
Donny Carter, a downtown Frostburg business owner who serves on the City Council, said the free parking program will be considered a pilot program. If the program does not work, city officials could elect to purchase new parking meters in the future.
Carter said he is concerned that without adequate enforcement people could take advantage of the situation. He said he has seen people parking all day on Main Street.
“If they are not enforcing the two-hour parking, it’s not going to work well,” he said. “They weren’t collecting anything on the meter. You have to enforce it to do that or you won’t collect any money on it.
“You’re just making a bigger problem. We need to figure out a solution to enforce is the biggest thing. Hopefully with better enforcement it will work out.”